Etc. Stuff

This is mostly a picture:story post - surprisingly enough, the cat focused part of the post lacks pictures!  

In the beginning of July, I had our carpets professionally cleaned because Mystic has a bad habit of not making it to the litter box.  I must not have thought this all the way through, because she was back at peeing on the carpet a few days later.  She is sneaky about it though, and never does it when we're around.  So our new routine is to keep her locked in the bathroom (with food, water, and a separate litter box) when we're not home or asleep.  I'm thrilled to report that we haven't had a carpet accident since!  Hooray for having a house that doesn't smell like cat pee!

Last week we came home and Eric noticed Addy was limping.  I felt so relieved that we have a section of our savings account earmarked for pet expenses.  So the worry of the cost of taking her to the vet didn't overshadow our worry of what was wrong.  We spent the evening trying to make her sit still, and I held an ice pack on her for ten minutes.  Luckily, the following morning the limp was gone.  Who knows what happened, but we're glad she's feeling better!

My summer has been full of working with my nanny kiddo - and he's been working on bowling this summer.  His form has something to be desired, but he's bowling in the 50's or above!

I've also been working on programming his AAC app on his iPod - he doesn't speak well, and he's picked up really quickly how to use it to say his words!

 My nanny kiddo also has this awesome body sock.  It is a nylon bag that provides sensory stimulation, and I caught this really cool picture of him!

Eric's summer has been spent wondering whether or not to buy some new games.  Addy broke him down, and now the are playing Age of Empires I, II, and III, Bioshock 1 and 2, and Unreal Tournament 3.

Eric and I housesat for Papa while he was in Michigan visiting Molly & family.  I used this as an opportunity to further unpack and organize his house.  This is his dining room, starting to look like a dining room!

This is his office, now empty of boxes and fully set up!  There is even a pillow for Frisco to sleep on while Papa works.

The guest room is also empty of extra boxes!  It has a bed, bedside table, lamp, and rug.  Perfect for someone to roll in for a night or weekend to visit.

I've also upgraded my clothesline!  The old one was nylon and flaking off strands on our clothes.  This is pvc, and affixed with L brackets - I used the two screws to secure the brackets to the porch, and then the pvc wire goes through the other two screw holes.  Now I just need to do some laundry!

This massive heat wave (temps over 100 for the past two weeks) has killed off most of the leaves on Grammy's tree :(

Some of the branches appear to be dying...

However there are still some that are holding on for some hope.  We got some rain today and have more in store for the next week.  Hopefully the leaves pop back up...we'll see.

We really let our budget get away from us this summer.  So we're attempting to go all of August without eating out.  Fast food was definitely a weakness for us over the past two months.  This is our last hoorah before that kicks in (this was on July 30th!).

This is Ashley's new room in her apartment.  She has officially moved out to Hays, KS for her first semester of state college, woo!

Day 339: Snowballing Eric's Car!

We've been working hard on our budgeting, keeping track of our planned expenses, and focusing on knocking out Eric's car payments.  Every time it storms he hopes for hail damage so he can get a check for damages and apply it toward his loan!  We've been talking about trading his car in for a "Dave Car" so we can get started on our next step, but nothing has panned out yet.

We forgot to color in our debt thermometer last month, so we just colored in

We are just short of 21 inches ($21,000) colored in!

Almost $1,500 paid off in the last 2 months! 

I know we keep saying it, but we are so close to the armrest on the couch!  Next month we will pass it and then some!

And it wouldn't be home without a topless Eric!

Day 294: Garage Sale, Motorcycles, & Pens

We wrapped up the garage sale today - It was crazy terrible waking up 5:40, but the sale was busy all day long. Mom and Alan, and Ashley each made over $100 today, Eric and I made over $40, then Alison and Paul & Deb each made some good money.  All in all, a pretty successful sale.

Eric ran some errands on his motorcycle, and then rode the bike to work in Lawrence.  He said it was a really windy ride, but that he's really loving riding.  Kristie joined us in the afternoon and it was Mom and Alan, Paul and Deb, Ashley, Alison, Kristie, Eric, and me hanging out all day.

Alan did a pen making demonstration for Kristie and me, and we took a trip to his hobby shop to pick out some new pen blanks.  I even got to carve half of a new pencil for me, woo!  Then Kristie and I went to dinner at Outback with Mom, Alan, Paul, and Deb.  Eric made it back to Olathe after work and we got to hang out for a bit before going to bed, ready to wake up early again tomorrow.

 Look at how shiny his bike is!  Eric off to run errands and to go to work on his bike.

Alan working on carving Deb's pen.

Before and after shots of the pen Alan made for Deb.

Mom and Chaos napping.

 Sadie chilling out with Alan.

Juneau is not amused that we gave her bowling balls to play with!

 Kobi is a sad pup, she would much rather be inside eating french fries.

Paul and Alan trying to make a Mexican Batman toy fly!

Day 291: G5 Economics

Eric here, pretending to be the nerd for a moment. This month our budget will be a little off-kilter. We've been making large payments to various debts every month, including a large sum to finish off my credit card last month. But now with April coming up, and our budget being prepared, we're having to make some small adjustments. We threw a little more at my car than we actually should have spared at the time. It won't cause any problems, we'll just have to modify our starting amounts and certain payments.

So here it is, the vehicle that has served me so well over the past two years. No decisions have been made, but we may just have to part ways so Jess and I can reach our goals a little bit faster.

All for the "Pursuit" of happiness (It's a G5 Pursuit)

Day 289: Morning Shifts

Things are starting to look up at Eric's job.  He's still looking for another job that will pay more or have more consistent hours.  But for now, he's starting to get lots of morning hours and averaging 36 hours per week.  It's really helping out the budget to be getting more hours, yea!  Once he graduates in the spring it should be easier to land a full time job, because he won't have any restriction on hours.

P.S. Eric ran out of gas on the way home from work today and I had to rescue him!  Poor baby!

Day 283: Paying Down Eric's Car

We will officially start the "snowball" payments on Eric's car next month, but this is the first month where his car is our lowest balance debt.  Only $5400 to go!  We made his payment on time, but were a few days late getting it colored in on the debt thermometer.  His car hasn't been upside down for quite a few months now - it's worth a little more than $8000 in it's condition!  Today he brought up the idea of potentially selling his car and using the profit to buy himself a "Dave" car for 2-4 grand.  I love the idea!  Without his car payment and saving up for a year, he could have more than $15k for a new (used) car.  We'll keep you posted on any progress in that direction.

We are SO close to the top of the couch arm rest! 

Things are heating up faster around here!

Day 278: Can We Do It? Yes We Can!

Today was a schoolwork day for Eric and a chores day for me.  He had a take home test and a project due in his tax preparation class.  Eric had been working on these last week and while we were in Michigan, but couldn't really focus, so today was crunch time.  While he was crunching numbers, I used my new phone and a checklist app to make my list of chores for the day and set off to work!

Then while he was at class, I went to Dave Ramsey with Papa and Ashley.  Tonights lesson was "From Tuition to Fruition", and it is about saving for college and retirement.  Dave talked about if a 30 year old made 40k per year and put 15% into retirement each year (making 12% interest), that by the time they were 70 they would have over 5.8 million dollars.  Eric and I won't yet be 30 when we start on this baby step, and we may not make 12%, and we might not work until we're 70 - but as Dave says "if I'm half wrong, you're still a millionaire!"  We are VERY excited about this because we really believe that this can be our future!

Aw man, I fell up the stairs!

Checklists and calculators, oh my!  These new phones are great!

Day 251: No More Credit Cards!

Today we received our federal tax refund!  We use that money, and liquidated half our our planned expenses account, to pay off Eric's credit card!  We stopped using credit cards in November of 2009, started Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University in February of 2010, and have since paid off over $20,000 of debt!  Now we've just got Eric's car to pay off, and then all that will be left is my student loans!

That red line has made it past my knee! (Or past our shoulders if we're sitting down by it!)

Day 227: Blizzard of Oz!

It was nice to have Lawrence call it as a snow day the night before - last time I got a call at 6am...after I had started getting ready for the day.  This meant that Eric and I slept in and spent a super lazy day at home.  I alternated between the computer and my current book, and Eric alternated between the PS3 and his current book.  At one point in the day I saw someone mention cookies on Facebook, so I made cookies from scratch with our new Mexican vanilla!

Later in the evening we were sick of technology and books, so we played Lego Harry Potter on the PS3, Mystery at Hogwarts board game, and some games of Scattergories.  The lesson of the night was "Eric is better than Jessica!"  He was better than me on the PS#, won 2/3 games of Mystery at Hogwarts, and 6/6 rounds of Scattergories.  Booooooo!

 Making cookies from scratch, with Mexican vanilla!

They're perfect! 

I braved the snow to get the mail...and ended up getting the last of our tax documents.  Hooray! 

Eric put Addy in time out for being too cute. 

Us playing the Harry Potter version of Clue 

The ingredients for Snow Ice Cream! 

Us enjoying our Snow Ice Cream in our footie PJ's.

Day 216: Are We There Yet?

Let me say, I've got an amazing husband!  I was freaking out last night because I still had some work to finish my sub plans, and the house wasn't ready for us to leave yet (dishes, laundry, last minute packing).  Eric reassured me that he would finish everything up while I was at school, and he followed through!  He even delivered a pizza and had lunch with me and a student who earned a pizza party (I've got a first grader who hates coming to school - he earned the party by coming to school 10 days in a row!)  Except that Mystic knocked all of the clean silverware back into the sink...so we left that for when we get back.

Right after school, we did a quick inventory of the suitcases to assure ourselves nothing important was missing, loved on the kitties, and left for my parents house.  Paul was already there when we arrived, so we deposited our few staying behind items in the house and left for the airport.  We met Grandma and Grandpa, Greg, Kelly, and Allie at the hotel and then went to dinner at Cracker Barrel.  We had some really good food and lots of interesting conversations - Eric had spicy grilled catfish with mashed potatoes AND fries, and I had a turkey sandwich with fried apples...and two and a half Mr. Pibb's, haha!

Last night I used a birthday iTunes card to buy a few episodes of House for the plane ride to and from Mexico.  This led up to a trip to Walmart for a new pair of headphones and a headphone splitter so we can both watch it on the plane.  We were also lucky enough to witness the ten minute ordeal of a very happy woman and a VERY grouchy cashier scanning the lady's few dozen coupons.  The woman shared that she spends about 2 hours every Sunday couponing from 3 different newspapers and a couponing website...she had a cart FULL of items, and her total went from $141 to $16.97...$16.97!!!!  That's 88% off!

Then Paul, Eric, and I went to the airport to pick up Deb from her flight back from Dallas.  I felt like a kid with my face pressed against the glass while watching the plane pull up.  Krista and Randy were walking in when we returned, and we stayed up talking with the family for awhile before going to bed.  Tomorrow is Mexico!!!!!

Allie's doodle picture

Day 202: Time For Some Change!

It is a sort of tradition that my side of the family meets up early in January for the Nicholson Family Christmas. This lets everyone juggle their own families through the holidays, and not be pressured to add one more stop onto the list.  This generally involved food, stockings, book bags, gifts for the young kids, and a white elephant gift exchange.  With our new lifestyle involving budgeting for Christmas, we had out white elephant gifts bought back on Black Friday.  So when we learned everyone had kind of given up on Nicholson Christmas and decided to postpone until Easter when everyone would be together again...I started wondering what to do with those gifts!

I had bought a change counting jar, and decided it was now mine!  So I set to work today to count all of our change!  We like to think that we're saving for something specific, and know that we could be getting a few cents of interest on it if it was stored in our savings account, but this is more fun!  It took about 20 minutes to run it all through the electronic counting lid...and in the past six months we have saved...

...$90.24 cents!

I spent the rest of the evening in bed with Addy and Mad Eye Moony, who is really friendly these days.

And later in the night Eric went to sleep with Mystic, happily tucked under the heating blanket.

Moony taking a break from all that string!

Day 200: We've Been Married 200 Days? Wow!

200 days...it has been six and a half months of marriage, and we're getting into the groove of things just fine!  Our drive to get out of debt has been the biggest focus of this past year for us.  We are really looking forward to owning my car next month, I don't even remember what it feels like to not make car payments...but I can't wait to cut that line out of our budget!

I signed up for Dave Ramsey's emails that focus on starting out 2011 right.  Today's email proposed a $100 challenge, asking you to look at your TV cable, home & auto insurance, cell phones, unused items around the house, you hobbies, your "toys", and fast food habits, and find a way to give yourself a $100 raise this week. 

1) Our TV cable is already at the bare minimum, go us!  We're never going to give up our internet, but we already don't have cable TV.  Maybe in the summer, when we're more active, we could give up netflix and save $10...but it isn't likely.
2) I've been meaning to call around about insurance, and today was the day!  Geico is affiliated with our renters insurance, and I chatted with an incredibly enthusiastic agent today.  They can save us $250 on our car insurance - hooray!  That's only about $40/month, but every bit helps! 
3) Our cell phones are also the most basic plan + texting, and no...we aren't giving up texting! 
4) We're actually got a few things to return... $30 sunglasses that don't fit Eric, a $15 shirt, a bowl from the wedding that has a defect... that's an extra $70 in our pockets straight away! 
5) My hobby is playing on the internet, and that doesn't cost anything extra.  Eric's hobby is video games, and he buys any games for 1/4 of the price on Half.com (and it's rare that he actually folds and buys something new). 
6) We have been a little bit bad about buying "toys" in the past month, but it was only with Christmas money and we don't feel bad about it.  The only extra that we spend each month comes out of our blow money allowances of $50 for him and $60 for me.  Though I've stopped getting sodas at the gas station as frequently...so I'll give up my extra $10 of blow.  Another $10 found!
7) Hmmm...lately we've been so far under budget on food that we have been more flexible with fast food spending.  So maybe we'll plan on cutting out fast food for the rest of January and saving $20 (or more) there.  Then we can just pay ourselves the food money that is left over, instead of spending it because it's there.

There you have it, I just earned us a $350 raise this month!!!  It's cool what you can accomplish when you take some time to deal with these things!

A long way to go...but we've had a great start.

A look at the entirety of our Baby Step 2 journey; past, present, and future.

Our short term goal is to get through the 2 car loans and 2 credit card debts.  An experienced Dave fan might point out that I've got them in the wrong order because the one we're paying on right now is obviously larger than the one above it - but we received an insurance payment of nearly $2,100 that we applied to the loan, which made it the next smallest debt in line!

Here is a look at my student loans, the majority of the lion on our backs :(  That is 3 companies broken into the semester-by-semester loans.  Basically, a huge mess that we can't wait to get rid of!

Day 183: Our Menagarie

We have been serious about earning some extra money this holiday season.  I've been working on getting some more of our storage items up for sale on Craigslist, and I've really been utilizing Craigslist to promote ads for babysitting and pet sitting over the holiday break.  I have picked up 3 babysitting jobs and pet sitting for a guy's 2 parakeets, a woman's cat, and my grandpa's dog, Frisco.  All of these add up to nearly $500 of extra money to throw at our debt snowball!

Also, my mom and I went to Shannon's Premier Jewelery party, along with Deb, Grandma Karen, Mary, and one of Shannon's friends.  Andrew tagged along and got to take a nap among Shannon's stuffed animal collection.

This is "Blue" and "Green"

Moonshine likes to stay under the bed.

Frisco got caught on the couch!  He loves his stuffed bear.

Addy keeping an eye on things from above.

Mystic checking out Moonshine's water.

Can you find the baby?

He loved the snowglobe, the music, and the train going around the base of it!